Privacy Statement

Please read this Privacy Statement carefully.

Privacy is very important to us. We also understand that privacy is very important to you. This Privacy Statement tells you how we protect and use information that we gather through this Medtronic website based in the United States. Medtronic and some of its affiliates, including our international affiliates, also operate other websites. This Privacy Statement does not apply to any other Medtronic website. You should review the privacy statement posted on other Medtronic websites when you visit them. This Privacy Statement was last revised on January 10, 2013. We may change this Privacy Statement at any time and for any reason. Significant changes to the Privacy Statement are discussed below in the Section called "Changes to the Privacy Statement." We encourage you to review this Privacy Statement each time you visit the website. By using this website, you agree to the terms of the most recent version of this Privacy Statement. Please also read our Terms of Use to understand the general rules about your use of this website. This Privacy Statement, the Terms of Use, and other written disclaimers, policies, terms of use, or other notices on this website are the complete agreement between you and Medtronic with respect to your use of this website. We also encourage you to read any additional terms provided when you access particular services or materials on certain areas in this website, or by following a link from this website because those terms may be different or in addition to this Privacy Statement and the Terms of Use and you will be subject to such additional terms.

  • Who operates this website?
    This website is owned and operated by Medtronic. Medtronic is the name we use to refer to our whole business, including Medtronic, Inc. and any of the companies that it controls, such as its subsidiaries and affiliates. When we use the words "we" or "our," we mean Medtronic.
  • What is personal information?
    Personal information is information we collect through this website that we can use to specifically identify you, such as your:
    • First and last name
    • Telephone number
    • E-mail address

    We will use this personal information to provide you the services on the website, so that we may contact you regarding your use of the website, and to operate and improve the website and the services available on it. You agree that Medtronic may store this personal information about you on one or more servers, including a server(s) located in the United States of America. We will maintain copies of your information in our internal records, systems, and databases, in accordance with our data retention schedules. We will continue to treat your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Statement. In addition, we may keep and use your personal information:
    • to respond to your requests
    • to provide the services in which you elect to participate
    • to tell you about new features of our website, including personalizing your access to our website; these features may include surveys to gauge your satisfaction with our website to develop records, including records of your personal information to tell you about educational and other information that might be of interest to you, including information about 1) clinical trials and medical studies, 2) Medtronic online resources, 3) other online health-related resources, and 4) existing and new Medtronic products and services as well as other products and services for analytical purposes and to research, develop and improve programs, products, services and content
    • to remove your personal information as defined above. In this case, you would no longer be identified as a single unique individual. Once we have de-identified information, it is nonpersonal information and we may treat it like other nonpersonal information.
    • to enforce this Privacy Statement and other rules about your use of this website
    • to protect our rights or property
    • to protect someone 's health, safety or welfare
    • to comply with a law or regulation, court order or other legal process
  • Does Medtronic ever share personal information with third parties?
    Medtronic will not share your personal information collected from this website with an unrelated third party without your permission, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Statement. In the ordinary course of business, we may share some personal information with companies that we hire to perform services or functions on our behalf. In all cases in which we share your personal information with a third party, we will not authorize them to keep, disclose or use your information with others except for the purpose of providing the services we asked them to provide. We will not sell, exchange or publish your personal information, except in conjunction with a corporate sale, merger, dissolution, or acquisition. We may be legally compelled to release your personal information in response to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, law or regulation. We may cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigating and prosecuting website visitors who violate our rules or engage in behavior which is harmful to other visitors (or illegal). We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we feel that the disclosure is necessary to:
    • enforce this Privacy Statement and the other rules about your use of this website
    • protect our rights or property
    • protect someone 's health, safety or welfare
    • comply with a law or regulation, court order or other legal process

    In addition to the ways that we may keep, disclose, and use information described in this Privacy Statement, we also may keep, disclose, and use personally identifiable information that you give us through this website in ways that we believe are consistent with FDA and other governmental guidance, directions, regulations, and laws.
  • What is nonpersonal information?
    The information we receive, and how we use it, depends on what you do when visiting our website. We collect and use your nonpersonal information (information that is not identifiable to you personally) differently than your personal information. Nonpersonal information is information we may collect through this website that does not identify you as an individual person. It may include information such as the following:
    • the type of web browser software you use (for example, Internet Explorer)
    • the name of the domain from which you access the Internet
    • the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website
    • the date and time you access our website
    • which pages you have visited on our website
    • the search terms you use
    • the links on which you click, and the personal information that has been made nonpersonal or anonymized (i.e., information that no longer reflects or references an individually identifiable user)

    If you visit our website to read or download information, such as information about a health condition or about one of our products, we may collect certain nonpersonal information about you from your computer. This information is collected from your computer's web browser. If you only read or download information on our website, we do not collect or learn your name, e-mail address, or other personal information about you. We may place a text file called a cookie in the browser files of your computer when you visit. The cookie may be stored on your computer's hard drive. The information that we collect using cookies is nonpersonal information. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, but some parts of our website may not work properly for you if you do so. We will not allow third parties other than those companies that we hire to perform services or functions on our behalf to place cookies on our website.
  • What does Medtronic do with nonpersonal information?
    Because nonpersonal information cannot identify you or be connected to you in any way, there are no restrictions on the ways that we can use or share nonpersonal information. We are always looking for ways to better serve you and improve this website. We will use nonpersonal information from you to help us make this website more useful to visitors. We also will use nonpersonal information for other business purposes. For example, we may use nonpersonal information or aggregate nonpersonal information to:
    • create reports for internal use to develop programs, products, service, or content
    • customize the information or services that are of interest to you
    • share it with or sell it to third parties, or
    • provide aggregated information on how visitors use our site, such as traffic statistics and response rates, to third parties
  • What is other identifying information? Does this Privacy Statement apply to that information?
    Other identifying information is the information that we may receive about you from others in the future, if you choose to use one of our devices or products, such as your device data and information we receive from your hospital or clinic regarding your continuing care. Other identifying information also is information that specifically identifies you that you give us in another way, like calling our patient services department. This Privacy Statement does not apply to how we keep, disclose or use other identifying information. We may keep, disclose, and use other identifying information in ways that we believe are consistent with FDA and other governmental guidance, directions, regulations, and laws, and consistent with our agreements with the parties who provide the other identifying information to us.
  • How can we work together to protect my personal information from unauthorized access?
    There are a number of steps that we take to protect personal information about you when we receive and store it. You also play a big part in protecting the privacy of your personal information. Please remember that while we take steps to protect the privacy of the information you send to us on this website, we cannot guarantee your message is protected against unauthorized interception.
  • What happens if the Privacy Statement changes?
    If we decide to make a significant change to our Privacy Statement, we will post a notice on the homepage of our website for a period of time after the change is made. Recent revisions to the Privacy Statement: Our Privacy Statement was revised on January 10, 2013.
  • What about privacy on other websites?
    This website may contain links to other websites. Some of those websites may be operated by Medtronic, and some may be operated by third parties. We provide the links for your convenience, but we do not review, control, or monitor the privacy practices of websites operated by others. This Privacy Statement does not apply to any other website, even the other Medtronic websites. We are not responsible for the performance of websites operated by third parties or for your business dealings with them. Therefore, whenever you leave this website we recommend that you review each website 's privacy practices and make your own conclusions regarding the adequacy of these practices.
  • Does Medtronic ever communicate directly with visitors to this website?
    We may contact you periodically by e-mail, mail or telephone if you agree to that contact to provide information regarding programs, products, services and content that may be of interest to you. In addition, some of the features on this website may allow you to communicate with us using an online form. If your communication requests a response from us, we will send you a response via e-mail. The e-mail response or confirmation may include your personal information, including personal information. As explained above, we cannot guarantee that our e-mails to you will be secure from unauthorized interception.
  • Are there special rules about children's privacy?
    We care about protecting the online privacy of children. We will not intentionally collect any personal information (such as a child's name or e-mail address) from children under the age of 13. If you think that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, please contact us.
  • What about website security?
    Security is very important to us. We also understand that security is important to you. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from this site may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.
  • How to contact Medtronic If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Statement, please use the Contact Us through our website. Last updated: January 10, 2013 Copyright Medtronic, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved.